GTA 6 release date is already 'keeping publishers up at night'

We’re finally getting GTA VI this year, and it will be a game-changing event in the world of video games.

The upcoming Rockstar Games title is the most anticipated game of all-time and is sitting high on most people’s list as the game to play in 2025.

GTA VI is keeping publishers 'up at night' as its release will be a 'disrupting event'.

The prospect of going up against the juggernaut of games is daunting for most, and publishers are rightly worried.

Speaking on GTA VI, KRAFTON advisor and professor of interactive media at the University of Southern California Mike Fischer said, “GTA VI is going to be so big and so successful it may suck up all the time and all the money of all gamers.”

He commented in the interview with Game World Observer that the upcoming launch is actively keeping him “up at night”.

Of course, there are a few reasons for this, I’d assume.

Firstly, it’s a game that will eclipse so many others that release around the same time, pulling eyes from potential games as players flood over to GTA VI.

Secondly, we still don’t know what the actual release date is, so publishers are having to estimate when they can release their own games.

Fischer continued, “When GTA VI ships, it will be a challenging disruption.”

Whether publishers actually see more players, due to the popularity of gaming generally, is hard to say.

On this, Fischer said. “Hopefully, there will be a larger audience as a result, but it’s literally an unknown territory, so we’ll just have to wait and see.”

While we’ve had huge games in the history of the industry, there hasn’t been one to create such a fervour as this, and it feels unprecedented.

For now, publishers will be wary and tiptoe around potential release dates until Rockstar Games drops the second trailer, and hopefully, a launch date alongside it.